2017: The Year Social Media Shutters Its Doors

Last month Twitter announced that they are shutting down Vine, Snapchat removed their autoplay feature, and Pinterest pulled their ads from Instapaper. Is it just us, or has the social media scene been through so much change this year, it’s hard to see what direction it’s headed? Many people took to social media to share their favorite Vines shortly after Twitter announced that they would be shutting down the video platform. The video content space has grown increasingly competitive over the past two years, with other social media giants like Facebook and Snapchat taking pretty big cuts of the pie. The moral of the story is that video is hard – for both the platform and the marketer. But influencers like Sarah Peretz say that they’ve already seen a big drop in their video count views after the removal of Auto Advance. Snapchat – or should we say Snap Inc. – has now released Spectacles, 5) LinkedIn Refreshes Company Pages LinkedIn recently announced that there will be new Company Pages rolling out for all brands. In the email, LinkedIn said that businesses will still be able to post content to and sponsor content from their page. 6) Twitter Adds Quick Reply Customer service is all about speed these days. Snapchat is now a camera company.

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This is the end of social media as we know it.

Last month Twitter announced that they are shutting down Vine,
Snapchat removed their autoplay feature, and Pinterest pulled their
ads from Instapaper.

Is it just us, or has the social media scene been through so
much change this
year, it’s hard to see what direction it’s headed? We’ve seen
channel after channel copying each other. We’ve seen
social channels increase personalization and give users more control. We’ve also seen
social giants doubling
down on ads
across the board.

Going into 2017, the social media scene is poised for change –
it’s clear we’re headed towards a very different landscape.

What platform is the best place to grow an engaged, robust
community? Which platform’s ad offerings will drive the highest ROI?
What medium will keep growing?

These are some of the questions every brand will have to answer
in the New Year.

In the meantime, here are some popular features we’re saying
goodbye (and hello) to this month:

1) Twitter Pulls The Plug On Vine

Last week, the Internet collectively mourned the death of Vine.
Many people took to social media to share their favorite Vines
shortly after Twitter announced that they would be shutting down
the video platform.

Twitter didn’t mentioned why they are shutting down Vine, but it
comes after a round of layoffs and talk of plans to refocus on its
core app.

Most likely, the biggest challenge for Twitter was figuring out
how to monetize Vine. The video content space has grown
increasingly competitive over the past two years, with other social
media giants like Facebook and Snapchat taking pretty big cuts of
the pie.

Vine just stopped growing. In March, the top 10 accounts on Vine
were posting 29% fewer videos than in 2015. Last year, Vine also
ranked in the top 50 apps, and now it’s ranked around 200.

The moral of the story is that video is hard – for both the
platform and the marketer. Viral videos don’t always convert or
lead to subscriber growth, as seen with Dove’s
#LikeAGirl initiative
. Many brands are
increasing their video budgets
, but they face major obstacles
in keeping consistent quality and measuring ROI.

Facebook is still working this out as well. Back in September,
it was discovered that the platform has been miscalculating video
viewership for the past two years. There are rumors that the
company is struggling to get Facebook Live to take off.

Vine won’t immediately go away, and will stick around for a few
more months. In the announcement, the team said, “We value you,
your Vines, and are going to do this the right way… You will be
notified before we make any changes to the app or website.”

2) Snapchat Sunsets Auto Advance

At the beginning of October, we also bid goodbye to Snapchat’s autoplay feature,
Auto Advance. Auto Advance was built into Snapchat Stories (the
section of Snapchat where videos and photos last for 24 hours), so
that stories would automatically start playing in succession.

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Photo from Daily Mail

Feelings are mixed on this one – businesses and
influencers…

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